Layoffs have been averted for now, but the L.A. County budget remains on shaky ground. Without stimulus relief and passage of Prop 15, SEIU 721 members could be facing years of austerity budgets, hiring freezes, and stagnant wages. as the COVID crisis extends for over many more months, the prospect … Read More
We’re going to face mass unemployment if we do not compel Congress to pass a strong HEROES Act that bails out state and local governments to avoid layoffs and budget cuts. That’s the bottom line. Congress already bailed out the richest of the rich months ago with $5 trillion in taxpayer … Read More
We’re living in the new epicenter of the national COVID-19 pandemic but you wouldn’t know it given the lack of basic Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) we’re enduring on the frontlines at the LA County Department of Public Health. It’s been more than three months since California’s first COVID-19 shutdown yet … Read More
On Monday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a final budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020-21. The budget addresses a nearly $1 billion projected shortfall by eliminating over 3,200 positions which would result in an estimated 655 layoffs. The lion’s share of these projected layoffs, approximately 400, are … Read More
Most everyone working in our union’s Health Division knew Cherri Newman, who tragically passed away on June 16, 2020. Cherri was a Licensed Vocational Nurse at the High Desert Regional Health Center in Lancaster, working in the Ambulatory Care Clinic, where she was like a mother to everyone there and … Read More
During the COVID-19 pandemic, calls to the LA County Child Protection Hotline have dropped by as much as 50 percent. This is very concerning. An astonishingly massive decrease in calls by half, virtually overnight, due to a commensurate drop in abuse defies credulity. It’s far more likely that calls aren’t … Read More
Social workers at LA County’s Department of Children and Family Services bargained hard for an MOU that clearly specified what our caseloads should be and our timeline for achieving them. But the department has not met these goals. On average, social workers in the Resource Family Support and Permanency Division … Read More
The County of Los Angeles and SEIU 721 reached an agreement Friday morning on a proposal aimed at averting layoffs and demotions. The Union rejected the County’s demands for postponement of negotiated raises as premature and unnecessary at this time. In order to avert thousands of proposed layoffs and demotions, … Read More
To close a projected $943 million shortfall in the 2020-21 budget, the County of Los Angeles has asked SEIU 721 and other LA County unions to agree to several pay concessions: Suspend for one year, effective July 1, 2020, LA County’s matching contribution to employees’ Horizons 457 savings plan. Postpone … Read More
We have embarked on a monumental but vital task of securing between $500 billion and $1 trillion in federal stimulus for workers – and our union most recently hosted a virtual town hall urging all members to join our team of Digital Union Voices. Click on the image below to … Read More